Learning mentors

Becoming a mentor

What is a learning mentor?

Learning mentors offer a complementary service to help students overcome the barriers to learning that contribute to underachievement and ultimately, social exclusion.

Ealing’s learning mentors are employed by primary and secondary schools to work with individual students using small group-work, learning games, drama and art. Their purpose is to enable students to participate in mainstream schooling and to benefit fully from the skills and time of other professionals.

Who are our learning mentors?

Learning mentors offer a variety of skills and knowledge to schools. All learning mentors work with students on a one-to-one basis to support the learning process. Learning mentors may also take on responsibility for developing new areas of work eg peer mentoring, student council or parent/carer support and innovative strategies to support learning.

Background and qualifications

Ealing has a diverse group of learning mentors drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds and occupations - youth workers, human resources managers, teaching assistants and counsellors.

There are no standard entry requirements for the role of learning mentor. In Ealing’s high schools we require lead learning mentors to have either a qualification related to the work - eg diploma in social work or youth work, Qualified Teacher status, or a diploma in counselling - or at least two years experience of working with the client group. Assistant learning mentors are required to demonstrate knowledge and relevant skills for working with the client group – this is assessed via application form, interview and task.

If you would like to find out more information about learning mentors in Ealing, or are interested in becoming a learning mentor in Ealing, please contact: